Meet Winchester's marathon runners

Friday

Apr 18, 2014 at 8:00 AM

By Dave Eisenstadterwinchester@wickedlocal.com

With messages of Boston Strong pouring in from all sides, national attention will be on this year’s Boston Marathon next week, and many Winchester runners who participated last year want another crack at it this year.While 27 residents ran it last year, 56 are signed up to run next week. Among them will be Lisa Fleming, who will run her 17th Boston Marathon this year. Fleming said the threat of terrorism is not stopping her from lacing up her shoes and heading to Hopkinton."Everyone wants to run it this year to show you can’t take Boston down," said Fleming, who will be running for Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary.An occupational therapist, Fleming said she sees what a gift it is to be able to run when so many of her clients have difficulty walking. She said she expects this year’s race will be louder, with more people and more emotion attached to it."Usually when you run a marathon, there’s a few stories about it, but now it’s on the news every day," Fleming said. "It’s a very emotional and hyped up event this year."Fleming was about 2 miles from the finish line when the bombs went off last year. She and her husband Russ, who runs beside her, both heard rumors of what had happened but figured people were exaggerating.When ambulances and police rushed past them, the couple realized something was seriously wrong.This year, as always for the Flemings, the marathon will be a family affair. Fleming’s son and daughter will be there, along with her mother and friends from Cape Cod, to cheer the couple on."All the people are still coming that have in the past," she said.‘I just kept going’Last year was Mark Herlihy’s first marathon. He was just a few tenths of a mile from finishing when he was stopped by police."I was on Hereford Street around the corner when the bombs went off," Herlihy said. "I didn’t realize they were bombs, I just heard a loud bang. It didn’t sound right, but I just kept going."But when he got to Boylston Street with the finish line in sight, he could see smoke plumes rising and knew something was wrong. In the panic and commotion that followed, his priority was connecting with his family, which was delayed reaching the finish line due to traffic.For Herlihy, returning to run the Boston Marathon is partly about being present for a historic event, but also about finishing what he started, running a race he grew up watching as a rite of spring."I don’t have anything to prove. I was very close to finishing and I later completed the Bay State Marathon in Lowell," Herlihy said. "I know I can finish a marathon, you know, but I was granted an automatic invite to run again, and I thought it would be nice to officially finish the race."As he did last year, Herlihy will be running for Endicott College’s charity team.‘A challenge to make it’Jeff Stein, who has been running marathons for more than 30 years, did finish last year’s race. He found out about the bombing after he got home and a friend called to see if he was alright.Stein said this year’s event has special significance, but that running a marathon is always meaningful."No matter how good you are or how new you are to the sport and how well trained you are, it’s a challenge to make it," Stein said.Watching runners for the last 5 miles is poignant for Stein because he knows the struggle that is going on within each one. And for Boston, too, the race is important, gathering together runners from around the world, Stein said.While it will be a festive experience, Stein knows it will also be a serious one for the runners. He said he expects a special determination from participants during this race."Everyone will have it [in] their head the events of last year," Stein said.